1 Mile average time?

At this point you shouldn't worry about how fast you're going.  You should progress from walking, to mixed walking/running, to eventually all running.  When you're running, just run slow, gradually increasing distance and frequency.  You'll get faster just by doing this.  At some point down the road you can worry about how fast you're running.  I'll let others chime in about when that should be....

Brian

as above poster said.

 I think that 1 mile times could vary from anywhere under 5 minutes to well over 10 minutes on this forum, so it would not give you that much idea.

Even if you are planning some sprints, your 1 mil wwill not matter. You need to be comfortably covering 3 miles non stop in training, but that takes time. Remember. The key to running is patience and consistancy.

3:43.13

(very good average tme)

What famelek said, just worry about the distance.  Walk run to cover the distance, maybe every other day at first or every day if your body appears to be recovering well.  I would probably work my way up to four or so miles and then I would start filling in the frequency up to six or so days a week.  Slowly but surely you'll find the walking part disappears.  Don't push too hard too soon, your body will have enough to adapt to (the added pounding etc).  What you need most is consistency and frequency - you can't do that if you struggle with an injury.  Speed comes with time. 

Also, if you feel comfortable doing so, log it here so that in the future people can give you more specific advice.   

I'd say BIG depends on the mile time, but I'll take a guess at it since I've been running for 15+ years and have been around a lot of runners my age.

In general, for M<35, I'd say a sub 5 minute mile is collegiate level, sub-6 is what an age-group winner will have to run in most small races, and sub-7 is what most serious runners at that age can run. Sub-8 is probably about 50%, and Sub-9 is still slowish but respectable, and anything slower for M<35 is pretty similar (not so fast).

If you are female or older, you have to accomodate. I can't give a reliable ballpark guesstimate, but based anecdotally on women who place similarly to me in 5ks, their mile times are about 30-50 seconds slower. 

Still, nothing beats just entering a race of any distance and seeing how far up in the field you can climb. You'll never race as hard on training time trials than you will in a race.

Depends on your background, your fitness, your ability to withstand running and all around gumption ........

In other words, whatever you can do right now is a good start and something to reference as you continue to improve.  Each person is going to have a different average.

Welcome to the sport, and welcome to BT!

Depends on what your goal is.... finish the race, earn a respectable time within your age group, win your age group, or win the whole thing....  If all you are looking for is an average time, then I'll throw out 9:30 mile is about average.  If you can run a 9:30 - 10:00 mile average in the run, and kick butt on the bike then you are going to probably finish in the top half (as long as you don't drown).

If you're just curious, look at the race results for the race you want to enter. Average the run times for your age group and there you go.

If you are worried about meeting some standard befre entering, don't. Register, train, and enjoy the race. Worry about beating yourself next year.

Hate to say it, but it would take sub 4:30 to get you out of sectional in high school.  There aren't many under 35 who can do that, and it would be an age group world record for anyone over 55 to do that.  Speed is the first to go as you age and most of us here have focused more on the longer distances (5K to marathon) and not optimized performance for the mile. 

There are some very talented individuals on these boards, as well as a lot of beginners.  Whether your average is 5min or 12min miles, it is what it is and 12 minute miles is as good of a place to start as any.  The carrot is improvement!

 American Masters Records:

I'm an old, slow fart and if I tried an all-out 1 mile, I'd likely be sore for the next 2 days   Now, if you want to take my 5k/3mi time of 26 minutes and divide it into mile segments, I'd be around 8:40/mile. Slow, but I excuse my mediocrity with things like: I don't have time to train, I'm 15 lbs overweight, used to smoke for 20 years, I'm a grandpa, blah, blah, blah

never mind, misread the OP

~Mike

I agree with others that over-concern with pace is not productive at the beginning.  On the other hand, paying a little attention to pace can help one train smarter, even at the start.  After all, you do want to get some sense of how fast your should be running to improve without hurting yourself.  There are lots of good resources, and subtlely (and sometimes not so subtlely) different views about proper training paces.  I've been a fan of Daniels' VDOT paces for a long time (though I'm intrigued with Fitzgerald's modified version of them).  You can google VDOT to find lots of online calculators.  The McMillan running pace calculator (here) is also a respected tool for determining training paces.

Assuming that you are physically fit enough to run an all-out mile, I see no harm in giving it a go.  Then you can use that time along with one of these guides to determine reasonable easy paces for your runs.  This should help you to optimize your progress even early on.

But yeah, it will be hard to go wrong at this point by just getting out there and running at a pace that doesn't kill you.

Maybe the cmpetition is tougher in the parts where you run your races, but I checked the results of the 2 sprints that I was in back in Sept and Oct, and here is a rough breakdown of the race in Sept.  I'm giving the 5k time rounded to the closet minute, you can divide by 3 to get an approximate1 mile split.  I've grouped them according to whole minute per mile splits. 

Angel's Race on Sept 14th:

5k Time           # Men   Avg Mile Split

18 - 20 min.        9           6 min/mile

21-23 min          33          7 min/mile

24-26 min          57          8 min/mile

27-29 min          51          9 min/mile

30-32 min          42         10 min/mile

33-35 min          27         11 min/mile

36-38 min          12         12 min/mile

39-41 min           8          13 min/mile

42-44 min           4          14 min/mile

45-47 min           1          15 min/mile

48-50 min           3          16 min/mile

This is pretty close to what agarose2000 posted, except I think sub 9 would be 50% or better, sub 8 is still fairly fast, sub 7 is top/elite level, and sub 6 is podium-finish material.

...as for me, I have a lot to shoot for... I'm still training around a 12 min/mile pace and may be able to do an 11:15 to 11:30 min/mile in a 5k or sprint tri race.

...oh well, it's all this 248 lb, 43 year old Clyde who's been training since Aug 08 can do at this time ...

..

BTW - the times I was referring to in my post for M<35 was for my estimates for a PURE 1-mile all-out run time trial, not as part of a sprint tri or a 5k. For sure, you will have to add lots of time if you are trying to use your 5k or sprint tri time, as much as a minute per mile. I read the OP's post as "average time" for a 1-mile time trial, not as an "average time" for a race for each 1 mile. 

Also - don't mean to nitpick at your great data there, but I'd put the "top/elite" category way, way over podium finishers unless you're dealing with a national-caliber high-profile race. For sure, a true elite triathlete should be below 6 min/mile for the run leg of a 5k, probably low 5s for a 16ish minute 5k, if not faster. 

I can't even do a half (880)in that time.

Sure, no problem.

I'm not even sure if what I posted would be helpful to the OP or not, but I thought it would be interesting to see the sprint tri results from the 5k portion broken down like that.  I was assuming that his 1 mile pace was in relation to what it needed to be as part of the run portion in a tri and I assumed that since they are just starting that their first tri would be a sprint.

I still have a lot to learn myself as I've only been at it a few months, but I was just coming out of my triptophan (sp?) comma from all the turkey I ate, had some free time on my hands, and thought I would post some avg 1 mile split times from a recent sprint tri.

..

I'm feeling slow, really really slow.  I can run 1 stand-alone mile in about 11:45.  My pace is slower if I have to run longer.  And, I thought that was a decent pace; at least I am running.

I try not to get myself caught up in trying to match other people's paces, as that only leads to disappointment.